Rosicrucian Digest Vol 89 No 2 2011 Gnosticism - Rosicrucian Order

Rosicrucian
Digest
No. 2
2011
Title was nothing for them, and they looked
only to the intrinsic value of the individual.
The poorest laborer, if his or her mode of
living and spiritual standards were high, was
more qualified to become a minister than
a person who had been ordained a priest
merely by fiat from Rome. Ordination meant
nothing to them.
This type of preaching was therefore
a direct attack against the mandates of
Rome. The simplicity of the lives of those
mystics and their disinterest in temporal
power were considered revolutionary. Their
teachings were a most dangerous heresy, and
a transgression against the established dogma
of Roman Catholicism.
Condemned by the Pope
Condemned as Manichaeans, this
was sufficient pretext for Rome to order a
crusade against the Cathars. Pope Innocent
III (reigned 1198–1216)—in addition
to organizing the Fourth Crusade, which
was supposed to go to the Holy Land
but instead attacked and conquered the
Orthodox Christian Byzantine capital of
Constantinople—was the driving force
behind this.
While using coercive methods against
the Cathars, the pope also tried to convert
them by sending in the Cistercians, who
were famous dialecticians, to preach to them.
According to the extremely rigid rules of the
Cistercian Order, their monks had to live in
absolute poverty. As ascetics they compared
favorably with the Cathars, for they practiced
many of the same virtues. However, the
Cathars were deeply devoted to their beliefs
and found little reason in the Cistercian’s
appeals to change their ways, even with the
persuasion of such worthy adversaries.
Numerous books have been written
about the barbaric persecutions that the
Cathars subsequently had to endure, so this
aspect will not be delved into here. However,
some of the most salient points of the fight
Page 38
Pope Innocent III (1198–1216).
will help to shed some further light upon
their history. From the middle of the twelfth
century, various church councils condemned
the Cathars. These seem to have been a series
of premeditated and well-orchestrated events,
and eventually the pope formally requested
the assistance of the lords of the south of
France. They were in effect asked to take up
arms against the Cathars, and in return the
Vicar of Christ (the pope) promised plenary
indulgences as a reward. The Cathars were
anathematized as heretics, and in accordance
with the established norms of the day they
were, in the eyes of the Church, no better
than the infidel of the East and had to be
killed en masse. At the same time as Innocent
III was asking for the help of the Occitanian
nobles and lords, he was also writing to the
Archbishops of the South, trying to stimulate
their zeal against the Cathars.
The papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau,
had been unable to convince Count Raimon
VI of Toulouse and bring him into the fight
for the Church against the heretics. Raimon’s
fourth wife was Joan of England, the favorite
sister of Richard the Lionheart. Interestingly,
Richard’s wife was a princess of neighboring
Navarre, whose last king became King
Henry IV of France who later figures in the
naissance of Rosicrucianism. The son of Joan
and Raimon VI was Raimon VII.
Castelnau excommunicated Raimon VI,
but when the pope confirmed the sentence in
brutally forceful and violent terms, Raimon
VI quickly submitted to his authority. But
the submission was not sincere, and after a